


Constellations

by Quillsandcoffee



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alien Lore, Aliens, Fluff, M/M, m/m - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-01-31
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:21:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quillsandcoffee/pseuds/Quillsandcoffee
Summary: Karkat discovers something new about the humans.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 6
Kudos: 65





	Constellations

“What’s that?”

Dave looked up, pausing his incessant scribbling for a moment. It really was good art. Great art in fact. Maybe even some of his best. He raised an eyebrow at Karkat, who was staring intently at his face.

“What’s what?” he asked, turning his attention back to his drawings. He would have to show them to Rose. Surely she would appreciate his hard work. “If you can’t tell, I’m kind of in the middle of something here.”

“ ‘Something’ being drawing more dicks all over our only source of information on this godforsaken meteor you mean,” Karkat scoffed. “Can’t you keep your perverse fantasies to yourself?”

“Shut up, this is art.” Dave pulled his headphones down, hanging them around his neck. He turned in his chair to face him. “What do you even want?”

“I was trying to ask you what those weird little dots on your face are.”

Dave raised an eyebrow. “Um, dude, what?”

“Those dots.” Karkat moved forward, and without any warning poked Dave’s cheeks. Dave liked to think of himself as a pretty chill dude, sophisticated, put together, but hell if he didn’t freeze up at that simple touch like an intellectually challenged deer in the face of oncoming motor lights. “You have them all over your face. At first I thought it was another dumb human thing, but Egbert doesn’t have them so again I ask, what are they?”

Dave recovered from his momentary lapse and pushed Karkat’s hands away, his face resuming its neutral position. “You mean my freckles?”

“What are freckles?”

Dave grabbed the back of his neck, struggling to think of a way to explain it. “It’s like… little dots on your face caused by the sun.”

“The sun marks your face?” Karkat looked horrified. “Does it hurt?”

“Nah, not really. You don’t even feel it. They just kind of appear suddenly.”

Karkat leaned back, crossing his arms. “How come Egbert doesn’t have them then, if they’re caused by your human sun?”

“It only happens to some people,” Dave explained. “Like, with lighter skin and all that.”

Karkat frowned at him for a moment. His head was tilted slightly to one side, examining him. Dave shifted under his gaze, feeling a bit too much like a science specimen. “What?”

But Karkat didn’t say anything, only stared. The silence was a bit weird in and of itself. To distract himself from it, Dave went back to his drawing. He traced over some of his previous lines, adding in details and shading, and by the time he looked up again, Karkat was gone.

For a while the matter was forgotten. Dave came up with new raps and Karkat wrote his weird fanfiction and the Mayor drew them both into architectural masterpieces involving many cans and several of Rose’s books which said sister in question was less than happy about. Life on the meteor was boring, not a single life-threatening occurrence aside form the occasional ominous HONK from the vents, and while it seemed totally uneventful to some, Dave thought it was kind of nice. They hadn’t had boring in so long. With Jack not constantly on their trails, they could just relax, hang out as friends. Dave spent more time with Rose and even helped her arrange some of her dates and write passive aggressive, euphemism filled love notes to Kanaya (Kanaya herself was not as happy about his involvement as some). He got to know Terezi better and together they honed each other’s skills—Terezi gave Dave tips on some of his drawings and Dave engaged Terezi in many a laborious and dildo-themed rap battle. The mayor was, of course, rad. As always.

And Karkat…

He had never expected things to go the way it had with Karkat. He hadn’t even liked Karkat when he first came to the meteor. The two had been at each other’s throats constantly, so much so that Rose had made many suggestions as to the true color of their relationship. But after a while… he wasn’t sure. Things calmed down. It seemed silly after a while to antagonize each other over things that had felt so important a while ago, but now seemed dumb and inconsequential.

And then the kiss had happened. It had been sudden and unexpected and somehow completely right in the moment. The two of them had stared for a moment, frozen and dumb in the face of it all, and then Karkat had leaned forward once more and everything had locked into pace.

They began dating soon after that. They didn’t have a big announcement or anything, but living on a meteor in close quarters with each other like they were, it didn’t take long for everyone to find out. They were met with raised eyebrows whenever they excused themselves to ‘work on art’ as they called it, and Dave had quickly excused himself from an awkward and graphic conversation Rose had attempted to have with him on whether or not they were using a pail or a condom.

They were comfortable. Dave had never felt so at home with someone, nor had he ever expected someone’s rants to become so familiar. It was nice.

They were on Dave’s bed when the conversation topic finally resurfaced. Dave lay in only a pair of boxers on his side, his preferred sleeping method. He tended to find pants too restrictive. Karkat didn’t understand how he could sleep so exposed but Dave insisted it helped him connect with his body. Karkat had then made a jerking off jab and the conversation had devolved from then.

That particular day, Dave found himself in the comfy stage in-between sleep and consciousness. Karkat’s body was warm against him, and his hair was crushed haphazardly against the pillow. His eyes were closed and was about to fall back asleep when he felt a soft touch gently trace along his shoulder blades.

“You have them on your back too.”

“What?” Dave grumbled, swatting lazily at the touch. Karkat ignored him, continuing to poke and trace his skin.

“The freckles,” Karkat explained. His voice was wondering, a soft innocence as he traced constellations with the spots on his back. “They’re on your back too.”

He drew a line through his shoulder blades and down the curve of his spine, the action idle and curious. If Dave was being honest, a rare occurrence, he found the troll’s interest sort of cute. Not that he would ever say anything.

“They’re sort of everywhere,” Dave explained sleepily. The gentle tracing was doing nothing to help his drowsy state. He drew in a yawn, pressing his face into the pillow. His next words were mumbled as he said, “Can you stop that, it’s super annoying.”

“Make me,” Karkat growled, but Dave had no such intentions. It did feel kind of nice and before he knew it he found himself asleep again, snoring gently. Karkat rolled his eyes at the noises. It was kind of fitting how even in sleep Dave wouldn’t shut up. He continued drawing lines in between the pale dots, connecting them into various shapes.

Sometimes he found it hard to believe they had created the humans. Often this was because the humans were dumb and loud and unbelievably vulnerable to things like death and stabbing, but other times it was because of beautiful things like this that made his breath stop short. He wrapped his arms around Dave, burying his face into the back of his neck and feeling at ease for once in his life.

How could he have possibly created someone like Dave who held the multitude of the galaxy on his back?

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at my tumblr: https://crookswithbooks.tumblr.com/


End file.
